


Home Invasion

by reasonablywittyatbest



Series: The Lost Statements [1]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, I Do Not Know You, Original Statement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 02:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19122808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reasonablywittyatbest/pseuds/reasonablywittyatbest
Summary: Martin Blackwood, Archival Assistant at the Magnus Institute, recording statement number 0110404.  Statement of Mary Jones, given April 4, 2011.Statement begins.





	Home Invasion

Martin Blackwood, Archival Assistant at the Magnus Institute, recording statement number 0110404. Statement of Mary Jones, given April 4, 2011.  
Statement begins.

It was a week ago, when I was house-sitting for my boss. I only left the house for a few hours. I managed to slice my hand open trying to cook. I don’t cook very often I’m more of a microwave meal girl. I got myself stitched up and on my way back to the house pretty quickly; probably because it was a Wednesday afternoon. Everything was normal when I left the hospital. I’m sure of that. 

I’m not sure when I noticed it, the change; I think maybe on the drive back. The sky had become a dull rolling grey, not even having the decency to rain. It seemed like the entire city had taken on the same tone, dull grey and lifeless. Maybe I am just remembering it in light of what happened next, but I don’t feel like I saw anyone at all on the drive back.  
The garage was open when I finally got back. It shouldn’t have been open. I was already on edge, I was the only one with a garage door opener and I know I had left it closed. Maybe I’m paranoid, perhaps I listen to too much true crime, but I felt all the hair on my body stand on end. Still, I had left the house in a hurry and not under particularly good circumstances so maybe I had just forgotten to close the door. Cautiously I went into the garage, and tried to door that led into the house, it was locked. It shouldn’t have been locked. I know I hadn’t locked it. 

I felt my mouth go dry. This was now clearly out of my league. I was going to call the police. I couldn’t, my phone was outside its area of service; which is ridiculous I was in the middle of the city. I should have walked away but, this place was my responsibility, I was being paid to look after it. It was the middle of the day how bad could it really be.  
So I went to try the front door of the house. That door was unlocked. So I opened it. Just a crack at first but I soon opened it all the way in shock. All of the damn furniture was gone. Every last piece of furniture was gone. There was nothing. There was no sign of anything. There weren’t even indents in the carpet where it had been. I think the shock made me stupid and I walked into the house and started to close the door behind me out of habit. 

After that moment of shock I noticed a light under the door beneath the stairs, right across from the front door. I felt my heart start racing. Was someone else in here with me? Stupidly the only change I made was to try and close the door behind me as silently as possible, hoping I hadn’t been noticed. I tried but the door still made a loud click as it closed and at that moment the light under the door went out. My heart started racing I absolutely wasn’t alone in this house. I crouched from instinct and froze. I finally learned whether I had the flight or fright instinct.

I could feel my heartbeat in the back of my throat and every muscle in my body was so tense I couldn’t move an inch, but then nothing else happened. I sat there frozen for a few seconds but nothing else happened. So I slowly reached to open the door again but it was locked. Not locked just. It wouldn’t open and I didn’t want to make the kind of noise it would take to try and force it open. 

Finally, keeping my back to the wall, I inched my way to the other side of the room. I couldn’t think of anything else to do and sitting still waiting to be found and killed was unbearable. The dread was turning my stomach like a stormy sea. I turned the knob as slowly as I could and finally pushed the door open to see inside.

I peered in the tiny crack, it was dark in the small room and there was no window to let in even the dull grey light that filtered in the living room window. After a moment my eyes adjusted and I could see. There were black shapes in the room, though they bore no resemblance to the furniture that should have been in there, but I could see no movement or human like figure. That was a small moment of relief.

When I heard the telltale creak of the stairs all I could feel was the coldest chill of dread numbing my body. I pulled back and looked up at the staircase certain I was about to see my death coming down the stairs. There was nothing, no one there. I started to think maybe I had been hallucinating out of fear.

Then I saw movement out the corner of my eye. The door to the kitchen was open now and I was certain I saw something move inside. I think that’s when I started to cry, I could feel a tear travel down my heated cheek, my face flush with fear. 

‘If they were in the kitchen,’ one part of my brain that seemed to be still be working and not just screaming in terror suggested, ‘then I could make it up the stairs and find some place to hide.’ It was my only rational thought, so I went with it. I moved so slowly I thought the creaking of my joints would have given me away. I made it the few feet to the bottom of the stairs eyes glued on the open kitchen door. Convincing myself to go up was harder than I thought it would be. I was pretty sure I knew which stairs creaked at this point, I had been looking after this house for a few days now, but if I was wrong. 

It seemed like an eternity I spent working myself up to going up those stairs, staying still was death, moving was death. I finally made myself put my foot on the first step. I made it up eventually, eyes on a swivel, down through the kitchen door up at the landing, down at the door up at the landing, back pressed against the wall. When I got to the landing I knew where I wanted to go, I was going to hide in the large wardrobe in the spare room I wasn’t using. 

My trip down the hall wasn’t much faster than my trip up the stairs. Finally, I had started to feel some relief. I was upstairs, undetected, if I could just hide, I could survive this. Then as I passed the door to the room I was staying in I heard the unmistakable thump, thump, thump, of heavy booted feat walking across that room towards the door. The terror came back in a ripple down my body and I started forwards skittering down the hall trying to be quiet and quick and failing I am sure, I opened the door I was aiming for and threw myself into the room. 

This room was all wrong too. This room was all wrong too and I felt my stomach drop and blood run cold. There was no large wardrobe to hide in, there was nothing to hide behind, just dark shapes barely light by the dull grey light filtering in though the curtains. I stumbled inside the door closing far too loudly behind me whatever was in the house knew I was there an where I was and I stood stock still like an idiot in the middle of the room I don’t even think I was afraid anymore at that point, just numb. I turned to watch the door, to see who was going to finally end my life. 

I felt a hot breath on the back of my neck, heard a dark hollow voice whisper in my ear “There was never anywhere to hide” 

And then I passed out from sheer terror. I guess. Anyways, I woke up in a pool of my own blood. I’d broken my nose when I fell; took ages to get out of the carpet. The house was completely back to normal. I have no idea what happened. I do not want to know what happened. But I wanted to tell someone who would listen, who would have to believe me. So I came here. And now I am going to leave here and never think about this again. Goodbye.

Statement ends.

Oh… dear. Well, I suppose I’m glad Ms Jones was able to get that off her chest. I’m sure that must have been a relief for her. I hope.


End file.
